A newspaper article
published on September 23, 2007 by the Houma
Courier in Houma, Louisiana.
(pdf
version)

Art has opened many doors for local
man

THAD ANGELLOZ
Staff Writer

You
may not know his name, but you’ve
seen examples of his art everywhere.
It can be found on West Tunnel
Boulevard, La. 311 and West Park
Avenue.

His art
takes the form of signs as logos outside
Creole Lanes, Waterland Louisiana
and Clearwater Pools, Spas &
Billiards among others. Many would
think owners of these businesses
looked outside the state to find
someone to create their logos. Those
same people would be surprised to
discover that local artist Guy
Fanguy sketched the original designs
for those signs years ago.

After graduating in
1975 from H.L.
Bourgeois, Fanguy, who currently
works as the information technology
director for the
City of Thibodaux,
continued his passion for art at
Nicholls State University where he
majored in art.
After asking his instructors what
people did with their degrees, their
response shocked him.

“They told me they (art majors)
became teachers,” Fanguy said. “I
knew right then and there that I
needed to switch majors. I switched
to computer sciences. I didn’t have
anything against teaching, but I
just wanted to do something else.”

In the meantime, Fanguy decided to
see how he could market his artistic
talent. He dropped out of school and
began visiting local businesses. One
thing lead to another and soon
Fanguy found himself
designing logos
for area businesses. “I didn’t make
a killing, but it helped me get by,”
he said. Fanguy also aligned himself
with Star Printing Co. in Houma
where he helped design business
cards.

Fanguy admitted that the field was
different 20-plus years ago. He
explained that designing projects
was time-consuming with no clip art
and other technologies around.

‘AN
ARTISTS’ ARTIST’
After taking a break from the
college life, Fanguy returned to
Nicholls at night to study computer
science and later graduated in 1985,
after teaming up with his cousin,
Marshall Canafax in the early ’80s.
Canafax was an airbrush artist. The
two opened a store and were thrust
into the life of a starving artist.
“It’s a tough way to make it,”
Fanguy said. “We just couldn’t keep
it going anymore.”

Fanguy eventually gave up on being a
full-time artist in the late ’80s,
butCanafaxhas gone on to have a
successful career doing custom
airbrush designs on Harley-Davidson
motorcycles
in Colorado. “I think the stress of
trying to make a living in art got
to me,” Fanguy said. “One day I
found out I had blown out a disk in
my neck which required me to have
surgery. Now, I just do it as a
hobby and find it much more
enjoyable.”

“He’s an artists’ artist,”
Canafax
said. “When it comes to people like
Guy and me, our boundaries are
limitless. He does a little bit of
everything, and I’ve always admired
and looked up to him. If he would
have traveled outside the area I
have no doubt he’d be a nationally
known artist right now."

INTEREST FORMS
When Fanguy was growing up, he
enjoyed art, but didn’t foresee what
the future would bring him.

The Houma native spent time taking
art and music lessons while his
friends were out riding bikes. While
attending H.L. Bourgeois in the
mid-’70s, he enrolled in art classes
where he sharpened his skills.
Fanguy even
won an art contest and
received an offer from someone to
buy his drawing. “Someone told me
that I shouldn’t sell it,” Fanguy
said. “They told me that once I sold
it I would be considered a
professional and wouldn’t be able to
enter anything in an amateur
contest.”

Fanguy said he owes his passion for
art to where he lives. While growing
up on the outskirts of Houma, he had
the chance to view nature on a daily
basis.

He remembers the swamps, the Spanish
moss hanging from oak trees and the
alligators he would see from time to
time. All of those images helped him
learn to appreciate where he lived.
“You can’t find what we got anywhere
else,” Fanguy said. “I believe
that’s what drove me to want to be
an artist."

A NEW
HOBBY
Along the way, Fanguy found himself
getting interested in other
art-related projects such as film
and photography.
As a young man he would take a
small, movie camera and direct short
Cajun films that involved swamp
creatures.

Many of his films can now be viewed
on
YouTube.com. Accessing them is
easy. All someone needs to do is
type in the word Cajun.

“I was always one of those kids who
wanted to learn about what made
different gadgets tick,” Fanguy
said. “I remember when computers
first came out, I took one apart and
put it back together
again.”

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
Fanguy will never tell someone he’s
never gotten any breaks to go his
way.

After befriending current president
and owner of Houma’s
HTV, Martin
Folse, he received an opportunity to
draw the movie poster for the 1983
film,
“Terror in the Swamp.” “I can
always say I did a movie poster,”
Fanguy said with a laugh. “Martin’s
a good guy, but the budget for that
film was really small. I really
didn’t get paid the full amount but
I got half in
my name put in the list of credits
and the rest in cash.”

Fanguy also got involved in
designing wooden postcards for a man
in who saw similar designs in Florida.

Fanguy eventually tapped into the
professional music side of things
thanks to a strange meeting with a
psychologist in Lafayette. After a
frustrating stay in a hotel, Fanguy
headed to the lobby during a break
at a conference he was attending. He
spotted a piano and began playing a
few notes. “It was a way for me to
relax,” Fanguy said. “I actually was
making people fall asleep. Out of
nowhere a man approached me and
asked me the strangest question.”
The man wanted to see if he could
hire Fanguy to perform for him. “At
first I didn’t know what to say,”
Fanguy said. “It seemed strange, but
when he started explaining what he
was doing I said ‘why not.’ ” He was
interested in getting him to play
background music for a CD he was
creating for his office complex. “I
got in touch with him and did a
recording of me playing the piano,”
Fanguy said. “I charged him $100 and
he paid me. Later, I went to check
out his Web site, and I could have
probably asked for $100,000.”

Through art, Fanguy has been able to
meet many people. He said the
most-interesting thing that’s
happened was when someone asked him
to draw a sketch on a
tombstone. “I
never really would have thought that
this would be so popular,” Fanguy
said. “It’s amazing, but I probably
get more business from this than
anything else.”

FUTURE PLANS
Fanguy said he has no plans of going
any further with his art.

“I’m content with heading to my
cabin
and getting in my boat in the bayou I have
behind my house,” he said. “I enjoy
just going out there and taking a
pencil and pad and sketching
things and taking photographs as
well.” Although he has a Web site
(www.guyfanguy.com) and items for
sale at
LA Cajun Stuff in Southland
Mall, Fanguy doesn’t want to become
a full-time artist again.

“I guess you always hope for that
big break, but I don’t really look
for that anymore,” he said.

Fanguy said he looks up to his
wife
and believes hers is a classic case
of why making it as an artist is
challenging.

“My
wife is so gifted with her
singing that should be nationally
known,” Fanguy said. “Unfortunately
it is a matter of getting the right
breaks at the right time in life.
She hasn’t gotten her break yet, but
I still hope she gets her shot to be
in the spotlight because I think she
deserves it more than me.”

(photo
above)

Guy Fanguy
looks over some of his artwork that
he has done over the years in his
Houma home Tuesday.
(EMILY SCHWARZE/STAFF)